45 



Ordinary Meeting, March lOtli, 1885. 



Professor W. C. Williamson, LL.D., F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



"On making Sea Water Potable," by Thomas Kay, 

 President of the Stockport Natural History Society. Com- 

 municated by F. J. Faraday, F.L.S. 



The author called attention to the absence of research 

 in this direction, and how man, endowed to overcome every 

 physical disability which encompassed him on land, was 

 powerless to live on the wide ocean, although it is teeming 

 with life. 



The water for experiment was taken from the English 

 Channel about 50 miles south-west of the Eddystone Light- 

 house, and it was found to correspond closely with the 

 analysis of the Atlantic, published by Roscoe, viz. : — total 

 solids 85-976 of which the total chlorides are 32-730, re- 

 presenting 19 '868 of chlorine. 



The waters of the Irish Sea and the English Channel 

 nearer to the German Ocean, from their neighbourhood to 

 great rivers are weaker than the above. 



Schweitzer's analysis of the waters of the English Chan- 

 nel, near Brighton, was taken as representing the com- 

 position of the sea, and is here given : — 



Sodium Chloride 27-059 



Potassium „ 0-766 



Magnesium „ 3-666 



„ Bromide 0-029 



„ Sulphate 2-296 



Calcium „ 1-406 



_„ Carbonate 0-033 



Iodine and Ammoniacal Salts — traces 



Water 964-795 



1000-000 

 Peoceedings— Lit. & Phil. Soc— Vol. XXIV.— No. 7.— Session 1884-5. 



